When modesty has once perished, it will never revive.

There's one blessing only, the source and cornerstone of beatitude: confidence in self.

As the soil, however rich it may be, cannot be productive without cultivation, so the mind without culture can never produce good fruit

We should every night call ourselves to an account: What infirmity have I mastered today? What passions opposed? What temptation resisted? What virtue acquired? Our vices will abate of themselves if they be brought every day to the shrift.

Many things have fallen only to rise higher.

Our plans miscarry because they have no aim.

Every man prefers belief to the exercise of judgment.